


Necessity

by ereshai



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Marcus & Cheese, Violence typical of the zombie genre, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie Fest 2013, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-23
Updated: 2013-06-23
Packaged: 2017-12-15 21:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/854398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ereshai/pseuds/ereshai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for Zombie Fest 2013 - prompt #8. Any Fandom -- Any Character(s) -- killing your zombified best friend is the hardest part of any zompocalypse.<br/>This is the second fill I did for this prompt, because plot bunnies.</p><p>Zombies on the Helicarrier? Nick Fury has enough on his plate as it is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Necessity

Assistant Director Hill and Agent Sitwell stood before Fury’s desk, Hill at parade rest, Sitwell slightly behind her on her right, clutching a file in his hands. Fury was standing at his window, looking down over the city below. This high up, everything looked deceptively peaceful.

“The most recent reports from around the globe are not encouraging, Director. We’re losing ground in every major city, and more of them are going dark every day. We’re trying to reestablish contact.” Hill gave her report matter-of-factly.

“Thank you, Hill. I think we both know that’s not going to happen.”

“Sir, permission to lead a team to retrieve a live- an active specimen. If we had one of them to study, maybe-“

“Permission denied. We can’t afford to lose any more lives, especially when there’s no point.”

“No point, sir? With all due respect, we need to find a way to stop the revenants that doesn’t involve shooting them in the head one by one.”

“Revenants? I prefer the term zombies myself.”

“Sir-“

“As we currently have three ‘active specimens’ on site, there’s _no point_ in risking valuable personnel to acquire more.”

“Director, I’m not aware of any projects-“

“Need to know, Hill. You didn’t need to.” The brief flash of anger on Hill’s face showed how much she agreed with that statement.

“If I may ask, how were the specimens acquired? We haven’t had direct contact with the infected, and we’ve been strictly enforcing the new security protocols that you instated at the beginning of the crisis.”

“We have Agent Coulson to thank for that.”

Sitwell and Hill exchanged a look.

"Coulson's alive?" Hill asked cautiously

"Not...exactly," Fury answered. He went to his desk and touched a button on it. A transparent screen flickered to life above the desk and he spun it to face them.

On the screen, they could see a brightly lit room. It was empty, except for the man in a hospital gown standing in front of the observation window. He was swaying back and forth, pawing aimlessly at the glass. As they watched, he slowly turned his head toward the camera, his attention caught by something they couldn’t see. The man’s skin was drawn tight over his skull, and his eyes were sunken and slightly cloudy. The bright lights emphasized the grayness of his complexion. He raised his hand, and they could see where patches of skin had been surgically removed from the back of it.

“Jesus, that’s Coulson!” Sitwell took a step back. Fury minimized the screen.

“It was.”

“And the other two?”

“Agents Kemmer and Said. Mistakes were made while transporting Agent Coulson to his current accommodations. They’re being held separately.”

“But how? He died long before the first revenant appeared.” Hill ignored Fury’s amused look at her continued use of the word.

“His body was being held in stasis, until he started moving around. That was three days before we were made aware the situation on the ground. If we can figure out what caused him to reanimate-“

“Maybe we can figure out how to stop it,” Sitwell finished.

“We don’t have anything we can use yet. The doctors tell me the zombies transmit a virus through their bite, but all it does is kill the victim more quickly. It isn’t responsible for reanimating the corpses.”

“Alien tech?”

“Nothing that we’ve been able to detect.”

“Which means nothing,” Hill said.

“Which means nothing,” Fury agreed, and went back to the window. “What’s our status?”

Sitwell stepped forward, the file open in his hands. “Provisions and ammunition are getting low. We can send out a team for those, of course. But we need to set down for repairs, before we’re grounded suddenly and permanently.”

“And _how_ do you suggest we do that? All of our repair and resupply stations are overrun.”

Sitwell began to list several possibilities, Hill pointing out the pros and cons of each one. Fury let them hash it out until his computer chimed a reminder.

“Get your recommendations to me by the end of the day. I have somewhere I need to be.”

They nodded in acknowledgement and left the office. Fury followed them out, making his way to the nearest secure elevator. He input his security code and hit the button for Quarantine. When the elevator stopped, he had to punch in another code before the doors would open. The next set of doors, at the end of a short hallway, required a scan of his security badge and his handprint. He stopped short of the doors requiring an eye scan; Fury didn’t have time to put on the equipment required to enter a Level 4 biocontainment lab. He would be taking the doctor’s report in one of the observation rooms.

The window in the observation room looked out over a well-lit lab where a handful of people in full-coverage blue suits were busy at individual work stations. Fury hit a button on the wall next to the window.

“Dr. Beck?”

One of the suited figures raised a hand and pointed at the other end of the room. Fury could just make out someone standing at the window in another observation room.

“Thank you.”

He made his way to the other room. Dr. Beck was going over the information he had up on several different screens. He looked up as Fury approached.

“Beck, you have something for me?”

“Ah, Director, yes. I have the results of the tests you ordered.” Dr. Beck pointed at one of the screens. “As you can see, we didn’t have any luck with various gases or chemicals – not that we were expecting much. I’ll forward the detailed report to you. Injury to any part of the body other than the brain has minimal effect, and high voltage electricity slows them down temporarily, as has been observed in the field.”

“Do you have any good news?”

“The sonic weapon is a qualified success.”

“Qualified in what way?”

“With the right frequency, we _can_ cause massive damage to the brain, enough to stop the revenants permanently.”

“But?”

“But it would affect living and dead brains equally. Assuming we want to preserve any potential survivors in the affected area...”

“Share your findings with R&D. If we don’t get a handle on the situation soon, there won’t be any survivors to worry about.”

Dr. Beck looked uncomfortable, but he moved on to the next screen.

“We still haven’t discovered what is causing the reanimation, and we aren’t making much headway in stopping the virus.” His voice was heavy with frustration. “We can slow it down a little. If we hadn’t lost Dr. Rao, we might be further along.”

“We’re all feeling the hurt. Keep working on it.”

The doctor cleared his throat. “The virus is present in both specimens-“

“Both? What happened to the third?”

“We tested the sonic weapon on Specimen Two.”

“I see.” Fury paused. “He had a name, Doctor.”

“Yes, of course, the late Agent, um,” he paused to consult his notes, “Kemmer.”

Fury nodded. “Continue.”

“As I was saying, the virus is present in both specimens, but dormant. We know Spe- the late Agent Coulson infected the other two, but we still have no idea how his corpse originally became infected. The current theory is that the virus is a byproduct of whatever causes reanimation. If we had another specimen similar to Agent Coulson, a revenant who was not originally killed by the virus, we might be able to learn more. Two or three more specimens of any origin would be helpful, actually.”

“I’ll put that in my letter to Santa.”

“Director,” Dr. Beck began.

“I’m not willing to endanger what remains of S.H.I.E.L.D. on a long shot, especially when all you can promise me is ‘might be helpful.’”

“But, Director,” Dr. Beck tried again.

“If another _specimen_ falls into our laps, it’s yours. We’re taking enough of a risk keeping the two we have on board.”

Dr. Beck rubbed his hands on his pants. “Forgive me, Director, but you’ve taken many risks in the time I have been with S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“When the situation demands it.”

“You think this situation doesn’t?”

“Do I really have to repeat-“ Fury was cut off by the blaring of an emergency klaxon.

“What is it? Are we crashing?” Dr. Beck reached out and grabbed the back of the nearest chair.

“Wrong alarm.”

“ _Director Fury_ ,” Hill said through his comm. “ _We have a containment breach in Quarantine._ _Lockdown procedures have been initiated. Should we begin emergency evacuation of the helicarrier?_ ”

“Negative on the evac for now, Hill,” he responded. “I’m in Quarantine; I’ll handle it. Lockdown should be enough to ensure the safety of the rest of the crew; I’ll let you know if we need stronger measures.”

“ _Yes, sir._ ”

Fury commandeered one of Dr. Beck’s screens, pulling up the feed from the security cameras in the area. Most of them showed empty rooms and hallways. A few of the offices were occupied by bewildered scientists testing their sealed doors, and one of the smaller labs held a group of lab techs, still sitting at their work stations. All but two of the patient quarantine rooms were dark. One of them held a petite female zombie in S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical gear; the other was empty.

“Where’s Coulson? How the fuck did he get out?”

“What?” Dr. Beck rushed over to look at the screen. “Impossible. The rooms cannot be opened without authorization from myself or command staff.” He brought up the security log. “He…he let himself out. How could he let himself out?” Dr. Beck turned his puzzled gaze on Fury.

“Command staff, you said?” He hit a button on his comm. “Hill, does Coulson still have his security clearance?”

“ _Yes, sir_ ,” the answer came a few moments later. “ _He’s still in the system_.”

“Revoke _everything_ , now, and when I’m done down here, somebody better explain how this happened.”

“ _We’re working on it._ ” There was a short pause. “ _I can tell you exactly how this happened. All tasks not deemed essential to keeping us in the air or otherwise necessary to our immediate survival have been reprioritized green._ ”

“Well, updating security clearances is now priority fucking red.”

“ _If you think it’s necessary, sir._ ”

“I just found out the hard way that it is.”

Fury barely registered Hill’s ‘ _Yes, sir_ ,’ turning his attention back to the security feed. “Where is he? Get those lights on. Find him.”

“He still had access to the system? Yes, that would explain it.” Dr. Beck said thoughtfully. “Optical scanners are used in the quarantine bays to reduce cross contamination by medical personnel, and his eyes are obviously not too degraded to allow for recognition.”

“And he just walked up to it and activated the scanner? Stood there long enough for it to do its thing?” Fury’s eye flitted over the screens as he looked for signs of Coulson’s presence.

“The revenants do retain some rudimentary skills, including opening doors. We’re theorizing something related to muscle memory as an explanation.”

“What’s next, picking up a gun and shooting someone?”

“It is possible, yes. Although I doubt he would truly be aiming the gun. Also, I believe he would be more likely to use it as a bludgeon.”

Fury gave him an unimpressed look. “If Coulson didn’t break out, what triggered the containment breach?”

“It originated on the patient level, Corridor D,” Dr. Beck read from the security log. “He didn’t get far; his bay is located in Corridor C.”

“Which means someone spotted him and pulled the alarm. Nobody’s reported in, so I’m going to assume we’ve got casualties.”

“The patient level is usually deserted. There’s no need for attending medical staff, and no one is comfortable being near the revenants. Security does their scheduled walkthrough several times every shift.”

“Well, now we know where to start. If Coulson was in Corridor D when lockdown went into effect, we may be able to contain this situation fairly quickly.”

“Please ask security to try to preserve Agent Coulson if at all possible. Obtaining another specimen of his origins could well be impossible.”

“I’ll be taking care of Coulson and any of his victims personally.” Fury patted his sidearm.

“But we can’t even leave this room.”

“That won’t be a problem for long.” He toggled his comm on again. “Hill, give me full security override for the quarantine levels.”

“ _Sir, that’s violates lockdown protocol. In the event of biological cont-_ “

“Just the quarantine levels. I’m not asking you to let me out; in fact, you better keep my ass locked in here until we’re clear. Just make sure I can get to where I need to be _while_ I’m in here.”

“ _Very well, Director,_ ” Hill paused. “ _It’s done_.”

“Director, I found something.” Dr. Beck zoomed in on one of the security feeds. “Look there.”

The screen showed a seemingly empty office. Fury couldn’t see anything that warranted his attention, and as he turned to say as much to the doctor, he noticed a slight movement right at the edge of the camera frame.

“Can we adjust the angle to see who that is?” he demanded.

“Security cameras are not my area of expertise.”

Fury tried to manipulate the feed on the screen with no luck. “Fucking stationary cams,” he muttered to himself. “What room – ah, there it is. Doctor, please remain here.”

“Sir, are you sure _you_ should be doing this? If something happens to you…”

“Coulson was my best friend. I recruited him; everything that’s happened to him since he joined S.H.I.E.L.D. is on me. The least I can do is let him rest in peace, and that is what I’m going to do.” He drew his sidearm and prepared to leave.

“How do you know Coulson is in that room? Enough time has passed for it to be one of his reanimated victims.”

“Then I’ll put them down, too.”

“No.” Dr. Beck straightened his back, his fists clenched at his sides. He didn’t quite meet Fury’s glare.

“Excuse me? I don’t think I heard you right.”

“I said no.”

“And _what_ makes you think you can tell me what to do?”

“You said if another specimen fell in our laps, it was mine. It’s not going to get any easier than this. We know how to handle the revenants now; we should be able to move them back into the quarantine bays without losing any more people.”

“And what happens when Coulson gets out again?”

“That was a fluke, a perfect storm of the right circumstances. Now that he no longer has security clearance, it won’t be an issue.”

“It’s never wise to underestimate Coulson, even when he’s dead.”

Dr. Beck finally met his gaze. “I’m aware I can’t force you to keep Agent Coulson intact, but I strongly feel that he is the key to discovering the cause of this, this plague. He may be our only hope to end it.”

“I’ll take that under advisement, Doctor.”

Dr. Beck cleared his throat. “Another thing, Director-“

“My patience is wearing thin.”

“Hmm, yes. Perhaps you would take the security team with you? I’m sure Assistant Director Hill would insist, if she were here.”

“She’d be doing more than insisting. Very well, Dr. Beck, the security team can tag along and collect your new specimen. _If_ ,” he held up a hand to forestall the doctor’s thanks, “it can be done safely.”

Dr. Beck nodded. “And Agent Coulson?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

Half an hour later, Fury was leading a small group of security specialists to the patient level. Fortunately, only one member of the security team had gone missing. None of the men and women accompanying him had been close to the man; Fury had ensured that after a few quick words with the team leader.

They stopped before the pressure doors that would take them into Corridor D.

“Remember, this is search and detain, but not at the expense of you or your teammates’ lives. We know where one of them is located; the other is still at large. As far as we know he’s not roaming the hallways. After we secure the first target, we will search room by room for the second. We will progress to the other corridors if necessary.”

“Teams, sir?” Specialist Belgarde asked. To her credit, she did not point out the fact Fury was repeating information from the briefing he’d given them only fifteen minutes earlier.

“I’m the only one with override access, so you’re all with me. Hostile One is in room twelve. Let’s stay alive and get the job done.”

Fury laid his hand on the handprint scanner, stepping back when the door cycled open. He gestured two agents forward into the corridor. Once they gave the all clear, the rest of the team moved in, and Fury cycled the door closed again. After the echoes of the final thud faded away, the silence was stifling. They all scanned the empty hallway uneasily. He cupped his hand by his ear, signaling them to listen carefully. There was a muffled thump from somewhere ahead of them.

“I’d say that’s what we’re looking for. Let’s go.” The team moved forward at a steady pace. On their right, doors leading to offices, supply closets, and small labs were set into the wall at regular intervals. To their left was a featureless white wall, interrupted by an eye scanner. As they neared the scanner, Fury could see the outline of a door that blended almost seamlessly with the wall – one of the quarantine bays.

Corridor D was a long, slightly curved hallway; they couldn’t see the other end. They passed another bay, followed by a pressure door.

“Was this kept open all the time, too?” Fury asked. He hadn’t been pleased to learn that the pressure doors at either end of each Corridor had been left open; it was a severe breach of security protocols, even if most of the bays were empty. This particular door opened into the maintenance tunnels, which were most often used as an easy access to the main labs; the only other route took about ten minutes just to get to the elevator that went to that level. The thought of a zombie loose on the lab level, even during lockdown, was not a pleasant one.

“No, sir,” Belgarde answered, and Fury caught and held her gaze until he was satisfied she was telling the truth.

“But you do check the tunnels during your security sweeps?”

“Of course, sir.”

The rest of the security team was going over the footage from the security feed prior to the lockdown, trying to establish the exact sequence of events, and they had eyes on the live feed as well. They hadn’t yet established the whereabouts of the second zombie.

“Specialist Jones,” he said into his comm, “please monitor the maintenance tunnels if you are not already doing so.” He waited for Jones’ acknowledgement before he motioned the team forward again.

Gradually, the other end of the corridor came into view; it was empty. Fury spotted something small and black on the floor. It was a comm unit, in several pieces. As the neared room twelve, he could hear a rhythmic clinking sound. Belgarde raised her brows at him in question and he shook his head in response.

“I’m going to open the door. We’ll give the hostile a chance to come quietly,” there were a few chuckles at that, “before we go in after him.” He nodded at the two team members with catchpoles, and they stood on either side of the door. The rest of the team fanned out in a semicircle, weapons ready.

Fury stood close to the wall, out of the line of fire, and punched his code into the security pad. The door slid open. Everyone tensed, intent on the darkened doorway. The clinking changed to an odd scraping sound, and there was a long, drawn out groan, then another. It was a sound they had all come to know well. The doorway remained empty.

“All right. If he was coming out, he’d be out. Let’s go get him.”

Belgarde and another specialist advanced into the room, followed by two more team members. The lights flickered on, and there were more groans, the sounds overlapping as if they were being made by two throats. The rest of the team entered.

“Sir, you should get in here,” Belgarde called. Fury drew his weapon and went in. He scanned the room. The security team was spread out in a staggered line facing one corner. In that corner were two zombies – Coulson and a man in a security uniform. The only thing keeping them from attacking the team was a pair of handcuffs that had been run behind a metal rod on the wall and attached to each zombie’s wrist. As it was, they were both grabbing at the air, pulling against the cuffs, their jaws wide and ready to bite.

“It looks like Dasty was using his head. He knew he was done for, and he managed to trap himself and the other hostile to minimize the damage.” Belgarde gestured at the unfamiliar zombie.

“Well, that’s one thing he did right.” Fury could see the team didn’t like that, but facts were facts, and he wasn’t going to blow sunshine up their asses just because they’d lost a teammate.

They used the catchpoles to immobilize Coulson and Dasty as much as they could, and one brave soul, Belgarde, got close enough to take the handcuffs off. She glared when he wouldn’t let her leave them dangling from Coulson’s wrist.

“This is the zombie that managed to get out of a secured quarantine bay without triggering a containment breach. Do you really want to leave him with a potential weapon? Coulson may not be able to kill you with a paperclip anymore, but he’s still dangerous.” He couldn’t hear what Belgarde was muttering, but he could guess. He’d have to follow her career, such as it was with the world swirling the drain.

Fury kept his eyes on Coulson, watching him strain against the pole that was jammed up under his chin to hold his mouth shut. It wasn’t really his friend anymore, of course, just a thing wearing his face. His hand tightened on his sidearm. He could put Coulson down, right now. Nobody would try to stop him; they’d probably help him do it.

He lifted his gun and holstered it. _Sorry, Cheese. I can’t let you go just yet._ Dr. Beck would have his test subject a little while longer. “Time to get the specimens under wraps, ladies and gentlemen,” he said, and walked out of the room. 


End file.
